A comprehensive characterization of chemically treated Brazilian sponge-gourds (Luffa cylindrica)

By Valcineide O. A. Tanobe, T. H. Sydenstricker, M. Munaro, Sandro Campos Amico. 2005

272 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Sponge-gourds, the fruit of Luffa cylindrica, are widely used throughout the world. Despite that, there is lack of scientific data concerning thermal, mechanical, and chemical properties of these fibers. Sponge-gourds biocomposites are a novel use of these fibers, but a better understanding of their surface characteristics is necessary to maximize their potential use. In this work, different chemical treatments were conducted on the fibers with aqueous solutions of NaOH 2%, or methacrylamide (1–3%) at distinct treatment times. L. cylindrica was characterized via chemical analysis and analytic techniques such as FTIR, XPS/ESCA, X-Ray, TGA and SEM. Methacrylamide 3% treatment for all times (60, 120 or 180 min) severely damaged the fibers. NaOH, on the other hand, showed the same beneficial effect regarding enhancement of surface area and thermal stability together with similar levels of lignin and hemicellulose extraction, without causing exaggerated harm to fiber integrity.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Polymers and Plastics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ade01607a2773904c1f741e27708c324aff1d9a0

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In Biomaterials

In Polymers and Plastics

Citations in the corpus

Adsorption of phenol from aqueous solutions by Luffa cylindrica fibers: Kinetics, isotherm and thermodynamic studies (2013, background): “The band around 1638 cm 1 was associated with C‚C and C‚O stretching in the aromatic ring (Tanobe et al., 2005).”
Studies on lignocellulosic fibers of Brazil. Part II: Morphology and properties of Brazilian coconut fibers (2007, methodology): “The crystallinity percentage (IC) of the samples was evaluated following an area method [56]:”
Vegetal fibers in polymeric composites: a review (2015, unknown): “1 [48,49]”
Recent Developments in Luffa Natural Fiber Composites: Review (2020, methodology): “FTIR was carried out for LNFCs with an epoxy matrix [50,51,61], polyester [65,96], vinyl ester [64], resorcinol-formaldehyde [78], pre-gelatinized cassava starch [101], as well as pure luffa fiber [55,69].”
Luffa cylindrica as a lignocellulosic source of fiber, microfibrillated cellulose, and cellulose nanocrystals (2010, background): “(Satyanarayana et al. 2007; Tanobe et al. 2005), which is lower than the density of some”